Amazon’s Android powered Kindle tablet!

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Budi Putra in Tech

Yes. The Amazon Kindle tablet is real. Amazon will be launching an Android-based tablet device in late November. You can grab a full color, multi-touch and 7″ tablet for USD250 (as a comparison, the cheapest iPad you can buy is USD499).

TechCruch’s MG Siegler already witnessed the new tablet:

Again, the device is a 7-inch tablet with a capacitive touch screen. It is multi-touch, but from what I saw, I believe the reports that it relies on a two-finger multi-touch (instead of 10-finger, like the iPad uses) are accurate. This will be the first Kindle with a full-color screen. And yes, it is back-lit. There is no e-ink to be found anywhere on this device.

Earlier this week, reports suggested that a 7-inch Amazon tablet could be released in October, with a larger, 10-inch version to follow next year. That’s somewhat accurate. As of right now, Amazon’s only definitive plan is to release this 7-inch Kindle tablet and they’re targeting the end of November to do that. The version I saw was a DVT (Design Verification Testing) unit. These have started floating around the company. It’s ready, they’re just tweaking the software now. If it’s not in production yet, it will be very soon.

Originally, Amazon had planned to launch a 7-inch and a 10-inch tablet at the same time. But that plan changed this summer. Now they’re betting everything on the 7-inch. If it’s a hit, they will release the more expensive 10-inch tablet in Q1 2012.

So there is a reason for me now to buy a tablet!

Twitter to launch its URL shortener, Amazon goes pro with Bit.Ly

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Budi Putra in Tech

URL shortener thing is really a big deal, thanks to the needs to the microblogging services, mobile phones and any kind of manual text-entry. It’s “a renaissance in the age of Twitter,” according to Danny Sullivan. URL shortening is a technique where a provider makes a web page available under a very short URL in addition to the original address.

Twitter has just announced that it will be launching its own URL shortener, while Amazon has launched it’s own shortened URL, amzn.to, powered by bit.ly’s new Pro service.

By the way, how useful of the URL shortener for you? Which shortening service did you use frequently?

18 interesting firsts on the Internet

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Budi Putra in Tech

Just discovered an interesting list, 18 first different things on the Internet [brief] history, thanks to the TechReaders site!

1. The First Email: Ray Tomlinson sent first email and also made use of @ symbol in email addresses in 1971.
2. The First Ever Domain Name: “symbolics.com” registered by computer manufacturer Symbolics (now obsolete) on 15th March 1985.
3. The First SPAM Email Ever: Gary Thuerk sent spam email messages to 393 people on ARPANET on 3rd May 1978.
4. The First Ever Mobile Phone with Internet Access Facility: Nokia 9000 Communicator (launched in 1996, Finland).
5. The First Ever Website: Info.cern.ch which was launched in late 1990.
6. The First Ever E-Commerce Website and Transaction: NetMarket that claims to process first ever secure transaction on the web on August 11, 1994.
7. The First Ever Online Bank: Stanford Federal Credit Union that provides Online Internet Banking services to all of its customers in October, 1994.
8. The First Ever Search Engine: WebCrawler.com which was launched in 1994.
9. The First Ever Blog: Justin Halls is considered the first blogger who started a web diary in 1994. [The term webblog was introduced in 1997 which later led to “blog” in 1999].
10. The First Ever Podcast: Dave Winer added audio content into the RSS feeds on January 11, 2001.
11. The First Item Ever Sold on eBay: A broken laser pointer worth $14.83.
12. The First Book Ever Sold on Amazon: Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter [1995].
13. The first edit on Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder when doing a test edit with text “Hello, World!”
14. The First Ever Video on YouTube: “Me at the Zoo” video put by the the cofounder of YouTube Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005.
15. The First Ever Message on Twitter: It was a demonstration message with text “just setting up my twttr” by the creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey on 21st March 2006.
16. The First Ever Voice Chat Service: Rocket Messenger.
17. The First Ever Website Hacked: Federal websites that included US Department of Justic, U.S. Air Force, CIA, and NASA in 1990.
18. The First Ever Social Network Site: Friendster.com which was launched in 2002.

Amazon Associates, Google’s Blogger now integrated

Posted on December 17, 2009 by Budi Putra in Tech